Having your feet held over an open flame may sound like a bad thing, but most of us benefit from being accountable to someone. Whether it’s the board we serve, the boss we report to or the constituents that count on our services, asking someone to rate our performance is a sure-fire way to improve that performance.
I can’t remember who first told me the story of the rabbi walking home at night, deep in thought. He inadvertently overshot his home and ended up near an army camp. A centurion challenged him, “Who are you and what are you doing here?” Like many a person, I’ve adopted that phrase — that pair of questions — as something to ask myself on a regular basis.
The past two editions of the Angle have reminded chief executives that saying ‘not now’ is important for themselves and for the organization. To wrap up the series, here are tips that recap what we’ve said.
· Have a strategic plan and have the items on the plan in priority order.
· Know approximately how many hours over what amount of time (days, weeks, months or years) it will take to accomplish each initiative.
· Keep yourself focused on the highest priorities.
· Keep your board focused on the highest priorities.
As we pointed out a couple weeks ago in the Angle, “Not now” is a much better message for a chief executive to give themselves and their boards than is ‘no.’ This is especially the case when the message is “Not now because we have higher priorities. And, chief executives, to make sure you’re accomplishing all you and the board wants you to, remember:
The most common concern expressed by chief executives at organizations with a small number of staff is, “I just don’t have time to do it all!” And yet they feel that to say ‘no’ to the board of directors is a nail in the coffin of their careers. So they work 80 hours each week and still can’t satisfy a board that thinks the executive can somehow manufacture time.